i take them sometimes from my area (back bedroom now computer room) outside and lay them on my car hood at different times of the day - hang them on my fridge - and look at them a few time a day with different light on them - there are skylights in my kitchen and a west wall of windows -

i would very much like to have a more consistent way to review and evaluate things ...

what sort of lighting can be used aside from a dedicated viewing panel i looked at a panel today some 1300.00 - the cfl bulbs in reflector - not working well

Biggest problem evaluating the prints under an ideal lighting is that most likely the prints will be hung in a location where the light is less than ideal. It does no good if the print looked great under the lights, but sucks when hung above the couch where during the day it gets a lot of daylight from the northern sky and during the evening it gets badly lit by some incandescent task lighting.

Biggest problem evaluating the prints under an ideal lighting is that most likely the prints will be hung in a location where the light is less than ideal. It does no good if the print looked great under the lights, but sucks when hung above the couch where during the day it gets a lot of daylight from the northern sky and during the evening it gets badly lit by some incandescent task lighting.

so then we are back where we started...

i have to come up with a happy medium... the incandescent bulb bad the soft daylights cfls harsh ...

Use papers that show less color shift in different light sources; little or no OBA content preferable then.

Have some lamps around that represent the display environment; a halogen at about 3000K and 45 lux at the print area for museum display, a halogen (Solux) at 5000K and 450 lux or more for critical color checks, a 5000K "full spectrum" daylight fluorescent tube like the Philips 950. A viewing light at 4000K full spectrum = halogen may be a good compromise if no display data is known. Think about the effect of glass framing too, a piece of normal window glass around tells a lot what happens if it is about 2mm in front of half the print.

Forget about outdoor light, it only represents the display conditions for the sign industry and it shifts color all the time including reflections from foliage and buildings. Fine to see the effects of OBA in paper when you walk from tungsten to daylight but that is all.

Biggest problem evaluating the prints under an ideal lighting is that most likely the prints will be hung in a location where the light is less than ideal. It does no good if the print looked great under the lights, but sucks when hung above the couch where during the day it gets a lot of daylight from the northern sky and during the evening it gets badly lit by some incandescent task lighting.

What is important is that your viewing station light is full spectrum. Normally you have no control or knowledge of the lighting of the finished work, but if your viewing light isn't full spectrum the results in a different light can be extremely poor. An image that looks good under a full spectrum light will generally be OK under various other less than ideal lighting types.

Having a viewing booth seems impractical at any stage of the game,I have 1 and don't use it/I like the trick of waiting till the sun comes up (or going down works as well if you have west facing doors)taking my print and adjustng it in my ample and east/ sunup facing doors and winders as open and sunlight emitting as it ever is going to get.Then I know what it really looks like.I like the solux set up and really think it's imperitive to get a handle on what is really going on, and in that light just great,but it isn't really any guarantee that your piece will be in any good light.So knowing my stuff shines under the perfect conditions is no thought to how it really is going to look on a wall.East facing doors and sunrise...Adjust the piece so the light strikes it obliquely, Never miss...

Having a viewing booth seems impractical at any stage of the game,I have 1 and don't use it/I like the trick of waiting till the sun comes up (or going down works as well if you have west facing doors)taking my print and adjustng it in my ample and east/ sunup facing doors and winders as open and sunlight emitting as it ever is going to get.Then I know what it really looks like.I like the solux set up and really think it's imperitive to get a handle on what is really going on, and in that light just great,but it isn't really any guarantee that your piece will be in any good light.So knowing my stuff shines under the perfect conditions is no thought to how it really is going to look on a wall.East facing doors and sunrise...Adjust the piece so the light strikes it obliquely, Never miss...

What is important is that your viewing station light is full spectrum. Normally you have no control or knowledge of the lighting of the finished work, but if your viewing light isn't full spectrum the results in a different light can be extremely poor. An image that looks good under a full spectrum light will generally be OK under various other less than ideal lighting types.

I have several devices from GTI, including a 59" model with tri-color light sources. If you can afford one they are great but they are pricey and there are other options which are very effective. I know plenty of successful and skilled professional photographers/print makers that do not use one.

I prefer using my solux setup. I purchased the 64" print bar from the company you linked, put it on a wall I painted a soft neutral gray, and then flood the entire wall with the solux bulbs setup I linked earlier.

I use the 4100k bulbs that come with the solux, although I prefer the warmer bulbs to display the work once it's on the wall.

I have several devices from GTI, including a 59" model with tri-color light sources. If you can afford one they are great but they are pricey and there are other options which are very effective. I know plenty of successful and skilled professional photographers/print makers that do not use one.

I prefer using my solux setup. I purchased the 64" print bar from the company you linked, put it on a wall I painted a soft neutral gray, and then flood the entire wall with the solux bulbs setup I linked earlier.

I use the 4100k bulbs that come with the solux, although I prefer the warmer bulbs to display the work once it's on the wall.

Wayne, from that linked solux lighting kit I'm assuming you're referring to as the "64" bar", how is it powered and/or wired into your studio setup?

I couldn't find the wiring info on that Solux link. Does it use an AC/DC power converter brick that plugs into the wall or does it need to be wired into AC home circuitry?

I can't imagine the level of heat (4) 50 watt Solux bulbs must be generating at over 5000 BTU's (according to the GTI FAQ section).

Obviously GTI is putting out the benefits of their product (which is very good and if you can afford it is certainly recommended). However, 4 50watt filtered tungsten bulbs (their way of saying solux) and their claimed BTU rating seems poorly stated. A standard 100 watt incandescent bulb generates around 300 BTU/hr so 4 50 watt halogen bulbs would probably be producing less than 1000 BTU/hr. Don't want to take the time to do the math, but that's not that much heat. Unless it's a pretty small room don't think it would be noticeable, and you don't leave them on all the time anyway.

As far as the 64" bar, what i was referring to was the bar that you can pop a print into and it holds it which comes with each GTI. You can buy just the bars, they call them "print bars" . They are similar to a map rail, but work much better for photographic paper. I've tried several map rails and the GTI is really the only one that works well.

The solux unit has everything you need, mount it and route a cord to a plug. I have mine plugged into a radio controlled switch, so the print is hanging on a wall about 10 feet away, and I can flip the lights on to view it from my workstation. So most of the time they aren't on.

As far as one of GTI's main claim that you need some UV light so the OBA's can be activated, don't know if I totally buy into that one. Seems a poor rational. OBA papers usually look just fine even if no UV light is present . I guess there is some logic to it, but it certainly isn't the main feature and reason to drop several thousand on a unit. If you wanted to throw a little UV in the mix, you could easily add a little fluorescent or compact florescent light onto the viewing area. That's what we did for decades until decent color corrected fluorescents starting showing up, use a mixture of standard incandescent bulbs with some cool white fluorescents.

Thanks for getting back with the details on the lighting setups, Wayne.

I was mainly concerned about the hook up wiring for the Solux lighting kit linked here. The photo on the Solux link doesn't show a power converter block to plug in to the wall with, but you cleared that up.

I didn't check out the prices of the GTI setups which I couldn't afford anyway from what you've indicated, but was curious about their print viewing light comparison info to their own technology mainly in the area of UV A filtering which is not good for your eyes and health in general.

I know the Solux lamps address this but was a bit confused on the spectral graph comparisons on the GTI site indicating at what extent UV is REALLY being blocked.

I'm not as sophisticated as some, but have found success with a combination of fluorescent, incandescent and indirect daylight. My basement work area is lit almost equally by all three allowing me to quickly check under the different conditions and a mix of all three. Nothing fancy - just some windows near the ceiling, one ceiling fluorescent and one ceiling incandescent.

As has been stated above, all the technology in the world won't make up for the fact that you can never be sure exactly what the lighting conditions will be in the places your work is hung.